Everyone has there own opinion on this subject but if you can properly age a deer on the hoof and see one of those pot bellied thick necked scarred up bucks with only spikes then i would say go ahead and take him out of the herd.

I would have to say logically the easiest way to increase the antler size of your buck herd (out of the 3 categories that affect antlers - age, nutrition and genetics) it would be age.

I don't think that anyone is that proficient at agingdeer to know exactly how old a deer truly is. If you don't let them grow you will truly never know...whether he would be more than a spike.

Furthermore, the way genetics works it would probably be completely impossible to control the genetics of your deer herd in normal circumstances by just shooting spikes...by the time the season roles around and you take that spike he could have already bred with a dozen or more does spreading his genetics...also the does genetics come into play also.

I say let em grow and forget about them until the are big 6's or eights.